Keynote Address
Herman Hertzberger

Today, supporting kids through space is the underlying focus of school architects. In the 19^th century, children sat together in a room facing a blackboard and a teacher. In the early 20^th century, open-air schools were introduced, but children still sat facing the teacher. It wasn’t until the second half of the 20^th century that this arrangement began to change.

The purpose of schools is no longer to simply acquire knowledge and skills—today’s students are there to acquire understanding as well. Students learn how to learn; they learn about attitudes, behavior, and communication.

Herman Hertzberger was a pioneer in creating a space that allowed students to learn and to understand. In the early 1960s he designed the Montessori School in Delft, a true groundbreaker at that time. It is composed of a conglomeration of small houses, with the hall acting as a street.

“Schools should not be defined objects,” cautioned Hertzberger, “because whatever we do, it will change.” Flexibility, in the sense of future expansion or reuse, is essential. The Montessori school, for example, was once an office building.

In the 1980s, Hertzberger designed the Apollo School, a combination of two different schools with two different educational systems. He organized all the classrooms around an internal space, an amphitheater-like organization that has been wholeheartedly emulated since. There are smaller corridors and blocked-out areas that allow students to work outside the classrooms.

The 1990s were a time of shrinking budgets for school construction in the Netherlands, said Hertzberger. To stretch the money, he spent it on creating cohesive organization. This tactic was also a response to the wave of immigration: by organizing space well, students of all languages and levels of understanding could feel comfortable.

These days, noted Hertzberger, many school innovations are found in the U.S. However, the Netherlands is incorporating schools and communities in ways that the U.S. should consider. The lack of open space has forced the country to combine schools with other functions.